How to Calculate Weight Loss Goals

I am a numbers nerd. I majored in Accounting and am confident enough in my nerdiness to say that I LOVE spreadsheets. Yep. I said it. I figured if I could post horrific photos of my starting weight with 100+ pounds to lose, then announcing I love spreadsheets and am a bonified nerd is just the next step to putting it all out there.

Now that I’ve gotten that on the table – let’s talk numbers when it comes to weight loss. Did you know there is a math calculation to lose 1 pound? You have to have a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose a pound on the scale. That means that the amount of calories that you burn needs to be 3,500 calories more than the amount of calories that you consume.

How to Calculate Weight Loss Goals

So, here’s what has to happen to calculate your weight loss goal and know whether or not you can reach it:

1. Find your BMR, or basal metabolic rate. This is the amount of calories that you burn on a daily basis just doing normal everyday stuff. I’ve included a BMR calculator at the bottom of this post. It will give you your BMR give or take a bit, but it’s accurate enough to get you in the ball park.
2. Decide your daily calorie intake goal. How many calories do you plan to eat each day?
3. Plan your workouts accordingly. There are many web pages and apps that will calculate your calorie burn for various exercises depending on your weight. I personally use the My Fitness Pal app on my iPhone.
4. Play with these numbers to see how many calories you need to eat and/or how many you need to burn to meet your goal.

I have put together a weight loss calculator to help you out with this. (See, I told you I’m a spreadsheet junkie.) First, scroll to the bottom and find your BMR. Enter that in the first blue cell. Then the next two cells are numbers you can play with to find a realistic goal.

For me, my BMR is 2065 calories per day. My goal for calories in is 1200 per day. If I want to lose 3 pounds per week, I know that I need to burn at least 650 calories per day, which for me is about an hour of kickboxing, or 1.5 hours on the stationary bike. See how it works?

For me, knowing it is a numbers game really makes me feel more in control of my results. Of course this isn’t exact. Your daily calorie consumption numbers will be off by a few, the amount you figured you burned will be off by a few and the BMR calculations are a bit off as well. But it is close enough to help you get in the right ball park for setting your weekly goals.

Do you find these BMR calculator and weight loss goal calculator helpful? Are you a numbers nerd like me?

How to Calculate Weight Loss Goals